"At this time the comment period stands," said FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess in an email. "We
have not made a decision either way."

The two proposed rules, nicknamed the "produce safety" and "preventive controls" rules, begin to
implement the
FDA Food Safety
Modernization Act signed by President Barack Obama in January 2011.

The rules are designed to
transform the
FDA into an agency that prevents food-borne illness rather than one that merely investigates
outbreaks. The proposed rules were issued after
outreach by the FDA to the produce industry, consumers, government agencies and
the international community.

On Monday, the FDA continued its outreach with a
public meeting
about the two proposed rules in Chicago. Lane Osswald, a wholesale vegetable farmer from Preble
County, testified at the meeting on behalf of his family's farm and the Ohio Farm Bureau
Federation.

"Of utmost importance is the need to consider the economic burdens new regulation places on all
growers," said Osswald, who has been following Good Agricultural Practices, a set of principles to
produce safe and healthy food, since 2007. "We emphasize the need to balance additional burdens
with actual positive food safety impacts"

One of the not-yet-proposed rules, known as the "foreign supplier verification" rule, which
covers the safety of imported produce, is of interest to the Ohio Farm Bureau. "We want to make
sure it is a completely level playing field" between foreign and domestic suppliers, said Yvonne
Lesicko, the farm bureau's senior director of legislative and regulatory policy.

While the Ohio Farm Bureau used its time at the Chicago public meeting "to focus on things that
are unique to Ohio," the organization supports the
American Farm Bureau's request for an extension of
the public comment period for the rules, Lesicko said. "We believe that all five proposed rules
need to be considered all at once," she said. "These rules will really interplay with each
other."

"Once the FDA has everyone’s input, they have one year to create the final rules," Lesicko
said.

Members of the public, including affected farmers and food processors, are encouraged to comment
on the
produce safety rule and the
preventive controls rule by May 16, and to stay tuned for the FDA's release of
the additional three rules for public comment.